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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

This is probably one of the best researched articles I have recently read about Puerto Rico. The analysis of the data seems to me flawed by unreal conceptual constructs (culture, and nationalism vs. economic dependence and statehood). I respectfully suggest a personality perspective. Five hundred and sixteen years of colonialism have shaped the Puerto Rican personality into two distinctively opposite poles; the colonized personality vs. the non-colonized personality, Ref. “The Governor’s Suits”. HR 2499 is a manifestation of the non-colonized personality of Puerto Ricans searching for a dialogue with the metropolis to end colonialism in Puerto Rico. The opposition to this project speaks for those colonized personalities who want to perpetuate colonialism in Puerto Rico. This proposal will never reach consensus in Puerto Rico because we are divided between the ones that want to end the colonial status and the ones who want to perpetuate the colonial status. Not having a dialogue with the US Congress is a way to perpetuate the colonial status. The ones who want to perpetuate colonialism oppose a direct dialogue between the people of Puerto Rico and the US Congress. At this stage, the issue is not to decide between Independence, Statehood or Sovereignty, but rather that we want to be heard as people and not represented by political leaders who have perpetuated this colonial status for the past 516 years with their trivial, tribal fights. All of these politicians are ignorant as to how their proposals will be shaped in reality because this dialogue between the Puerto Rican people and the US Congress has never happened. Mature relationships are not defined just by a one-sided perception of reality but by consensually agreed meanings. In my opinion, what is happening in Puerto Rico is a drift toward the non-colonized personality and away from the colonized personality that has characterized most of us for these past 516 years.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Is legalization the idealistic response to drugs, or is prohibition the right approach?

I was blocked head-on by two humvees full of armed Mexican soldiers while on my way to pay respects to a friend. Twelve assault rifles and two .50 caliber machine guns were aimed at my face as I stepped out of the vehicle. I didn’t ask any questions because I knew exactly why it was happening. This was Ciudad Juárez. I found out later that 54 people were killed that weekend just a half-mile from where I slept. All I wrote in my journal that Friday night was that the stars looked amazing. What’s amazing is how unaware we can be sometimes- my American friends were out partying while my friends in Mexico were dying for their sins. It’s like they were dancing to Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Recent headlines read “Drug Violence Spills Across Border,” “Mexican Drug Traffickers Corrupt Politics” and “Another Mass Grave Found in Mexico,” but the crisis is not Mexico’s alone. They say that for someone attempting to break a drug addiction, the first step is to admit that they have a problem. It’s time for the U.S. to admit it has a very serious drug problem. Since seventy percent of drug cartel funding comes from marijuana sold to Americans, fixing the problem demands discussion of a hitherto taboo alternative- the legalization of marijuana and other illicit drugs.

To me, it is no coincidence that the War on Drugs and Vietnam were both born in the same era as both are the progenies of American idealism. Drug legalization has been criticized as utopian, but frankly, I think it may be the opposite- the prohibitionists are the ones holding on to an impossible dream. The very idea that enforcement of prohibition will form a perfect equilibrium at a manageably low level of drug use is practically a parody of Icarus. Such a magical moment will never come; it simply is not possible to eradicate enough cocoa plants, kill enough narcotrafficantes, or secure the border with enough agents and technology to achieve satiety. If anyone was to be criticized of utopian indulgences it would be the man who thought that somehow our paper, guns, cameras and dogs could shut down a multi-billion dollar industry.

When difficulties break out in the War on Drugs, the answer has always been adjusting the existing prescription through measures such as increasing border patrol or decreasing arms traffic. But when you step back, how ridiculous is it that Americans and Mexicans are killing each other with machine guns and grenades over a plant? Moreover, why have over 11,000 Mexicans died from drug violence in the last two years? And why are there 500,000 Americans behind bars for non-violent drug offenses? As such, the only definite results of the drug war have been mounting causalities. Medical treatment, education, and profit reduction strategies through legalization offer more promising prospects for success than locking up countless black and Latino youths while sending profits directly to Mexican drug cartels to buy weapons and bribe politicos.

The chief obstacles standing in the way of solving the drug problem appear to be social and political in nature. Drug legalization has historically been such a taboo a subject that any politician even suggesting it might as well turn in their resignation letter. As one statesman put it, “We know what to do; we just have no idea how to get reelected after we do it.” Thus, it falls on the shoulders of the citizen to let political figures know that we want solutions and won’t crucify them for letting people, god forbid, grow their own marijuana instead of paying violent gangs in Mexico to do it for them. The examples of Portugal and The Netherlands illustrate that, rather than making drug use endemic, legalization can actually be a tool to reduce it.

No matter how faithful we are to the prohibitionist model, no one is rescuing Timmy from the well, Casey is not coming back in the bottom of the ninth, and, no matter how many times we kiss it, the frog is not turning into a prince. We’ve chased the elusive mirage of prohibition and meanwhile perpetuated malfeasance, venal legal systems and violent, organized crime rings throughout Latin America. Our policy apothecary is not just wanting, it is irreparably poisoned. Sirs and madams, it’s time to go shopping for some new ideas.

Monday, July 27, 2009

I am very sorry to read a bit of irresponsible reporting by COHA, which I had admired over the years. It is hard to know how to address the many factual errors in this, but let’s start with the Iranian Embassy being “the largest” etc. There is no embassy in Nicaragua to compare with the huge, huge US Embassy. “You can imagine what that’s for.”It is true that Hilary made the quoted remark, but she was flat out wrong and the author of this piece should have done some fact-checking of her resources before incoporating it into this piece.

The alleged voter fraud of last November has never passed the “ällegged” stage. The opposition groups, who started claiming fraud in the middle of the afternoon of November 9, while the polls were still open, have never presented any evidence. When challenged on this detail, their response is “what good would it do?” Well, it might give some credibility to the fraud claims. All the fraud claims appear to be coming from the US Embassy and orchestrated by the USIS. There was no evidence presented until some pictures recently appeared on the internet, allegedly of ballot boxes that were thrown in the rive in Leon. But the pictures could have been of anywhere and any time.

For the US to withhold promised aid on the basis of alleged fraud is so similar to the ploy used against Aristide in Haiti in 2004 that it had to come from the same playbook. And the fact that the current US Ambassador to Honduras, who was a party to the plot to kidnap and remove President Zelaya last month (”but I tried to get them to stop their plot” he said shyly) was the orchestra leader of the coup against Aristide in 2004 when that president was kidnapped at gunpoint and shipped off to Africa stinks to high heaven.

Ambassador Callahan (in Nicaragua) was a longtime aid to then-Ambassador Negropointe in Honduras during the infamous period when Negropointe was covering up the death-squad activity of the Honduran military and has been active in Nicaragua since his arrival only to undermine the Sandinista government. He has admitted meeting weekly with opposition political leaders in the Embassy, certainly not a normal activity for an Ambassador.

COHA produces very reliable material on Latin America, but its recent coverage of Nicaragua and now Honduras could very well have originated in the same US Embassy.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

When in 1776 our rich nobility founded the United States, they hired a militia to defeat the arm forces of England, France and Spain, and then hired paid actors to create a make believe government to hide their wealth, power and absolute control.

So here we are 233 years later giving 11 trillion of tax payer money to the rich nobility who own our seven largest banks, giving 18% of our gross national product each year to the rich nobility who own our medical industry, giving over a trillion each year to rich nobility who own our war materials industry, and sitting helpless while rich nobility give away over half of our jobs to cheep-labor nations. For our intelligent middleclass is about to become extinct, as they have not a big brain to be among the rich, nor the strong back needed to be among us who hard labor for the rich.

Comes now the richest corporations in Honduras, all owned by U.S. rich nobility, and by way of a military coup they to reestablish an absolute dictatorship over a slave-labor force of 7.5 million.

Its like the history teacher in Chicago who when asked by a third grade student, “Was Cuba one of our colonies?” then replied, “The United States does not have colonies. We have territories.”

Monday, July 20, 2009

COHA must realize that it discredits its own authority by having the original piece on the situation with Zelaya in Honduras by Brian Thompson removed. COHA’s angle and take on this incident is not lost by this change and I commend you for putting its actions into words. Your own style, however, lacking responsibility, is in fact honest. Keep up the struggle on the information highway.

In total secrecy the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and generals all proposed, argued and debated until they reached perfect agreement on a coup, and then before Zelaya could get out of bed there were a dozen hooded solders pointing guns at his head — Unbelievable. And most except it, without even a word of debate about it — truly Unbelievable.

For unless something changes the dynamics, Zelaya will agree to end all reform, and no president in Central America will again dare offend deadly Empire USA. Comes now light to force such darkness to give way.

Before Zelaya ran for president, the owners of Chiquita Banana and some other rich corporations in Honduras happened to be playing a round of golf, when one bemused, “If we do nothing to stop Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution, this green were standing on will be turned into a vegetable garden for the homeless. Come, let us sucker Chavez into fighting a coup he cannot defeat, a coup we orchestrate in a way that Chavez looks weak and helpless, and a coup that sends a cold chill down the spine of every president in Central and South America.”

So President Zelaya, his family being rich nobility for many generations, increased minimum wage 60% from about $1 to $1.60 an hour, and created welfare programs that could easily be reversed. Then as all politicians in Honduras are paid actors running a make believe government, all were coached on what they must say and do, and Zelaya shows up in pajamas at a foreign air port yelling “Coup!… Coup!… Coup!”

Take for example what Zelaya said when asked by Al Jazeera TV why he did not fly to the U.S. Air Force base in Honduras, “It is not a U.S. base, and our military would be on the runway.” Not true, as we have a lease that prevents anyone but U.S. troops from entering the heavy guarded base. As our supersonic jets and guided missiles are top secret, and the knowledge of whether we have nuclear warheads on the base is super top secret. And as Zelaya did not attempt to land on the base, and as the U.S. did not propose this as a first step to ending the coup, surely we have something most deceitful and suspicious going down.

And so, watch carefully how our hero Chavez handles the way Zelaya and the U.S. are doing nothing but talk about a compromise between dictatorship and democracy, how they can come up with a somewhat dictatorial democracy.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Free traders are selling the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement as a vehicle for producing American jobs by eliminating Colombian tariffs on American exports. But Colombian President Álvaro Uribe keeps talking about American “investment” in his country. This agreement is about foreign direct investment in Colombia and as such is not a trade deal but an outsourcing deal. Outsourcing deals require investment. Trade deals do not require investment. Trade deals require only the removal of barriers to trade.

When US trade negotiators sat down to negotiate the existing trade deal with Colombia their contempt for the well being of the American people led them to accept a deal where a tariff is applied to US exports to Colombia while imports coming in from Colombia are duty free. That contempt for the Americans continues in the proposed new trade agreement. The spin is that it is about American jobs and indeed a bone is thrown to American workers in the form of no more tariffs on our exports. That bone is near worthless since they have little money to buy from us and what little they do buy from us they have little choice about. They will buy it with or without the tariff. There are fewer jobs for Americans in this agreement not more.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Honduran constitution that the coup plotters claim to defend forbids referendums on almost all areas of any importance. So the movement for constitutional change was growing and even received some support from the establishment. Even Liberal presidential candidate Elvin Santos realised that change was needed but suggested a referendum to be carried out after the elections in November (not on the same day as the election as was suggested by Zelaya).

After swapping from the right wing of his Liberal pary to the left wing Manuel Zelaya started to gain enormous support from social movements, trade unions and organisations defending indigenous people. They were enthusiastic because Honduras’ ALBA membership was going to make it possible to do something about the horrifying social exclusion in the country. Already 150.000 people had learned to read using the Cuban method Yo sí puedo. Now the coup government is throwing out nearly 150 Cuban teachers claiming they were “indoctrinating” Hondurans. This puts an end to a process that in January 2010 would have eradicated illiteracy in the country.

But for an elite that has not realised that Latin America is changing there was even worse to come. The ALBA-cooperation was making it possible for Honduras to offer cheap credits to poor farmers enabling them to buy seeds and new equipment. FAO has praised the results of this kind of reforms in Nicaragua, a country that according this organisation has the best program for food security in all of the third world. But large landowners in Honduras were of course furious. Poor farmers acting with dignity and in defense of democracy are a nightmare for these not so very democratic people.

Now civil organisations are being harrassed by the authorities and hundreds of people have been detained. Popularly elected mayors are driven away and replaced with pro-coup polticians. Civil liberties are abolished during night time. Radio- and TV-stations have been either shut down or silenced by the military. A dictatorship is being used by one part of the population to suppress then democratic aspirations of another part.

But a democracy cannot in the long run exclude important groups just because they are poor or because of the fact that they are indigenous.

The popular movements incited Zelaya to do some things that were not very wise. Walking into a military base to recapture voting materials irritated and humiliated the military in a most dangerous way. Zelaya wanted to postpone the Opinion poll for a couple of weeks and the social movement behind him should have let him do so. Also Chavez insults toward some respectable but very conservative people in the Honduran establishment have been extremely unwise and may have contributed to some good people mistakedly supporting the coup.

But neither of these mistakes can excuse the introduction of a dictatorship that suppresses civil libarties and sets a horrifying example for the rest of Latin America.

BJÖRN BLOMBERG, Sweden (a country that has for several decades allowed indigenous people to organise themselves and have radio stations without becoming communist. Our capitalists do extremely well under both social democrat and right wing governments)

Friday, July 10, 2009

To explore the US angle of this article a COHA reader, Alan J. Kuperman, Ph.D. includes the following:

News ReleaseLBJ School Professor Alan Kuperman Speaks Out on Canadian Medical Isotope ShortageWhen the nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, which produces one-third of the world’s medical isotopes, shut down on May 14 over safety concerns, it created a worldwide crisis in the field of nuclear imaging.

Medical isotopes are used in the effective detection and evaluation of patients with cancer, heart and brain diseases. With a shortage of isotopes, doctors are being forced to resort to other more costly and invasive procedures.

LBJ School Professor Alan Kuperman has been lending his expertise to the issue after organizing and drafting a letter to the U.S. Congress, with other non-proliferation experts and medical experts, urging Washington to start domestic production using low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is not weapons grade.

According to a press release issued by the letter-writers, “American patients depend on such isotopes for nearly 20 million medical procedures each year, but the United States does not produce any itself, relying entirely on imports. Complicating matters further, most foreign manufacturers currently produce isotopes using nuclear weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU) – the same material that fueled the Hiroshima atom bomb – which is controversial.”

The crisis is expected to worsen when a European reactor, which produces a third of the world’s supply of medical isotopes, will close for scheduled maintenance this summer.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

I am worried that the international community does not really know what is going on; and what is worse, they are victimizing Mr. Zelaya. Furthermore, I cannot believe the international community wants Zelaya back in power, when he clearly has been hanging out with crazed Chavez. Which leads you to think, don`t they wonder if Zelaya is trying to lead us to the same place as Chavez led Venezuela??

In summary what has happened:
Since the beginning of his term, democratically elected ex president Zelaya started bonding with Chavez (Venezuela) and Ortega (Nicaragua), using slogans like “power to the people”, increasing minimum wage in Dic. 08 by 300% regardless if a company, small or big, could pay this salary, especially in these financial times (Note: To date, more than 200,000 people have become unemployed as a result of this increase in minimum wage), all to win the poor people over. He has bought people (literally everyone knows this in Honduras) by paying them to participate in public demonstrations against other branches of power, or to show support for the signing of the ALBA (By the way, this money spent is taxpayers money).

Among Zelaya`s breaches of law, he has neglected in almost a year (to date) to send the annual budget to Congress, therefore controlling the money that comes in and out of government, as well as spending the money without regulation (for instance, making government purchases without limitations).

Downturns of his government include, rise in criminality (kidnappings, murders, etc.) and drug trafficking rates never seen before, decrease in medical attention and medicines in major public hospitals as well as Social Security, total lack of attention and abandon of agriculture sector, and most recently lack of attention to disasters provoked by recent earthquake in our north coast.
What happened this weekend was the last drop. Ex President Zelaya was trying to do a “survey” as he called it, that was supposedly nonbinding, asking people if they wanted a Constituent Assembly to reform the Constitution (and in other words, to create a One Branch/Power Government, and prolong his term as president). This kind of surveys, called referendums by law, can only be done by Congress, who is the legislative power (1 of the 3 branches of power) according to our Constitution. However, the Ex President disobeyed this order and continued spending millions of taxpayers’ money in propaganda, as well as paying off individuals to support him, and coercing government officials to sign a paper that said they would vote “yes” on the survey or they would be fired. This survey, unlike other surveys, would require citizens to present their ID at the voting center, to confirm among other things, that officials had gone to vote.

Then, this last Thursday, Zelaya issued a notice in a local journal (El Heraldo, June 25th, 2009) where he states that this “survey” would be binding. By then, the Supreme Court had issued Zelaya’s actions illegal, since he had been continuously breaking the law. On top of this, the Chief of Armed Forces, General Vasquez (Note: the Armed Forces, by law, oversees all voting processes to ensure transparency) said to Zelaya that the army could not participate in this survey since the Supreme Court had issued it to be illegal. President Zelaya, instead of advocating to the Supreme Court, fired the Chief. Zelaya then busted his way into an Armed Forces building to capture the ballots, apparently in realization that he was running out of time before elections are held this coming 29th of November, especially without the Armed Forces support.

The point Congress and the Supreme Court are making is that Zelaya was stepping out of boundaries of the Constitutional Law. General Vasquez was later reinstated by Congress and the Supreme Court.

To be honest, I did not expect the military to grab the president the way they did, however, if they wouldn`t have taken action (following Congress and Supreme Courts orders) Honduras would be headed to a Chavez`s Venezuela, Fidel`s Cuba…or Corea`s Ecuador. For this, I believe our Congress, Supreme Court, and Armed Forces have acted honorably and courageously, in defending our Constitution and the freedom it guarantees its people. Unlike Venezuela, our Armed Forces are Neutral and follow the Law. The Lesson Honduras have learned, is that no one is or should be above the law.

Honduras`s Constitution does not include an Impeachment Trial for Presidents, as the U.S. Constitution does; therefore the military, which is controlled by the Law, and follows the Constitution…followed the road they had to take…Perhaps we must perfect our Constitution, but it has to be made through legal means… through the means enabled by our Constitution.
In supporting Zelaya, the international community is completely ignoring the Honduran Constitution. This was not a coup...but rather could be considered an ousting. This is our Constitution…and nobody except Mr. Zelaya has broken the law.

I recommend you read a Manual issued by the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA in Spanish) which was made after dictator Allende turned Chile to the Left during the 70s. The manual, describes exactly how to turn a country into a Lenin-Marxist state, and the steps Allende followed. This is exactly what Zelaya was doing; this is exactly what Chavez did in Venezuela.

This is a sad time for my country and I hope we overcome it. I hope the international community can see the truth…

--Andrea Facusse

Friday, July 3, 2009

I am an USA citizen in Honduras. Having lived here for several years and having strong ties to Honduras and having made over 110 trips to Honduras since 1991, I must say that today’s retraction of Brian Thompson’s article is a shame. He was right on!

I have watched Mel Zelaya trounce many laws in Honduras over the last several years.

I was afraid I would have to return to the USA soon due to the anti-American hate constantly exuding from the mouth of Zelaya and his friend Chavez and now I can stay here in peace.
How dare you, who do not know Honduras, make judgments against people fighting for democracy and against Chavez and his cohorts?

And FYI, CNN’s “advisors” for the woman who is covering the story in Honduras are Mel Zelaya’s former Public Relations man and one of the people from Channel 8 which was socialist.

--Teresa Searcy

Thursday, July 2, 20o9

Mr. Birns:

Thanks for your email yesterday restating COHA's position on the situation in Honduras. I worked in Honduras in the late 1980s (actually as a brief colleague of Joe Eldridge while he was at the Christian Commission for Development) and returned there for my doctoral dissertation work on shrimp farming. I now am at California State University-Fullerton.

I had contacted Adam after meeting other COHA staff at a June 2 Woodrow Wilson Center event commemorating Margaret Crahan (my former teacher). I asked several more economic questions to help Adam restate the situation, but oh well, the situation changed very quickly between then and June 29! I'm including that message below for your information.

I wanted to say that I do think your newer analysis is more balanced, yet as you and other members of the Washington community continue to analyze this crisis (and possibly others in the region), I hope that you can make a call for better on-ground-reporting. One of my biggest concerns about this whole situation is the polarization within Honduras, but I'm wondering how skewed it is. Before Zelaya tried to hold the election there were some press reports that "only 30% of the population said they approve of Zelaya"; then after the coup Michelleti said "80-90% of the Honduran population supports the coup". I have not seen the first pre-June 29 survey document, but as a person who works extensively with statistics, I would be cautious. I'm most concerned if any surveys done in Central America are not drawn from a representative sample and if they do not include rural areas in the sampling. In mid-June I received emails from listservs (mainly of peasant organizations) supporting the IV Urna and Zelaya. And I think Honduras is divided geographically also, but international reporters are only in Tegucigalpa.

A second concern centers around US aid and if it is to be reduced next week. I would pay particular concern to the Millenium Challenge Corporation funds, which are directly linked to democracy and institution-building in each of the countries signing the compact. As a person who has followed Honduran issues over 2 decades (as well as the burning of the U.S. Embassy after the Juan Ramon Matta "kidnapping") I can imagine the U.S. State Department is in a very difficult position and probably does not want to withdraw aid immediately. But targeted approaches could be more effective.

Again, thanks for rewriting the COHA statement, and I look forward to remaining in touch with your office as events develop.

Your analysis of the situation in Honduras is, for the most part, fairly balanced. And, for the most part, fairly accurate. I won't go into the inaccuracies, because the important issue is that we, in Honduras, are standing firm in our refusal to recognize Manuel Zelaya as the constitutional president. The new constitutional president is Roberto Micheletti, not a favorite with many of us, but nevertheless, the person that lawfully should succeed the deposed president under these circumstances. He has pledged that elections will be held in November, which is something Zelaya planned to cancel alledging that the 'people' wanted him to continue in power. The removal of Zelaya, a president who thought he was above the law and was intent on violating the Constitution of this country, was done as lawfully as is possible in a country like ours which has laws but not detailed procedures on how to carry them out. However, under the circumstances, many of us would never call the events of this weekend a coup d'etat. For one, the military did their task under orders from the Supreme Court and Congress. Secondly, our Constitutional rights have not, at any time, been cancelled. In most of the country, people are carrying on business as usual, even on Sunday while the transfer of power was being effected. And finally, Micheletti is not a puppet of the Armed Forces by any stretch of the imagination, as only we Hondurans would know and he's surrounded by men and women who will surely keep him honest (for 5 months at least!)

There have been no deaths so far. But, should the OAS persist in bringing Zelaya back into this country, confrontations will most certainly escalate. The OAS would be acting very irresponsibly if they did this because they would be directly responsible for any deaths that could result. I'm a Honduran and I live in Honduras. The relief over having gotten rid of Zelaya by far outweighs any concern over whether it is viewed as lawful or not, by people outside this country. There is overwhelming support for this new government and, even those of us who have been completely non-partisan and non-political, have felt obligated to stand up in defense of our country's ultimate well being. Zelaya's outrageous conduct, his very obvious utilization of government resources of all kinds to further his own interests, his suspected ties with drug traffic, and his 3 and a half years of a government characterized by improvisation, guaranteed that we never want to see him return as Constitutional president. We only ask that COHA and other influential think tanks remain open minded and try to be objective with regards to the events in our country.

--Marta Collart

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Dear Larry,

I have now read your article. I am glad you support the return of Zelaya as president.

I do not agree that Mr Zelaya's assessment of the situation as an elite ousting him in order to protect their privileges as being wrong or a way to win international support.

The news media that is owned by some 3-4 families in Honduras with TV-stations and newspapers have for several months played a crucial role by waging a ruthless propaganda war against Zelaya's government.

This crucial role of the median owners is exposed in an editorial today in El Tiempo in the article "Y luego que?": http://www.tiempo.hn/index.php/editorialesThe media wars that created a climate of intolerance were government outlets responded with a similar propaganda refusing their enemies to have a say.

El Tiempo consistently let all sides have a say and has for many years been the only paper in the country that does it. La Prensa and El Heraldo never let indigenous people or organizations of the poor have a say, but El Tiempo has done it for years. Some years ago its chief director got sacked for allowing the journalists criticize the elite too openly but they have continued using as little self censorship as possible.

The coupsters have closed down channel 36 a private TV channel that was not critical enough toward Zelaya, they have closed radio stations, the private TV stations have been showing only cartoons etc in the days after the coop. Look at Venezuela in 2002 and compare.
Zelaya suggested to re-found the country and wanted a participative democracy. He ensured that he was NOT going to run for reelection. But the wealthy elite and its followers among the upper class and upper middle class feared that they were going to be swept away from power by a popular movement not specifically by Zelaya.

Why do you thing they shot at the home of PUD presidential candidate Cesar Ham who may be dead or maybe is hiding (sources give different versions)?

The elite was afraid and reacted in panic. That is my interpretation of this coup.

I read with much interest of an upcoming report on the issue of legalization of drugs in Colombia by Research Fellow Rachel Godfrey Wood.

Many of the reports on drug use, abuse and legalization address the issues of the impact of drugs on society but limit themselves to the impacts on the urban society, both in the US and in Colombia: use by kids, killings, drug cartels, addiction, incarceration, rehabilitation, the futility of the current war, etc.

Where I have seen little coverage is on the impacts of the current war on the Colombian peasants and on the environment. Cultivation of coca and cocaine extraction require the use of chemicals that are highly regulated in the legal economy but are handled very irresponsibly by the illegal producers. Spillage, mismanagement, intentional dumping to avoid seizure of people or goods cause serious damage to the rivers and the environment. In additon, the continued persecution by law enforcement agents forces the traffickers to be on the move leving behind abandoned camps with leaking containers. And large spots in the jungle that have been cleared of vegetation for the planting of the coca bushes.

The other grave issue is the displacement of peasants who are forced to leave their plots by the traffickers looking for land to cultivate the coca and also by the violence of the war among groups vying for control of areas to cultivate. In addition by the escalating price of food, agricultural supplies, fuel and consumer goods brought about by the availabiliy of money from the drug traffic and by the increase of consumption of goods without the necessary increase in the supply. To top it, the current policy of erradication considers the use of herbicides to destroy the coca plants. The herbicides, applied from the air over small coca plots end up destoying the plantain, yucca, and other food crops. It also contaminates the roof tops that are used as collectors of rain water used for drinking. And it contaminates the rivers and soil. But it does little to hurt the coca industry. By many accounts of peasants with whom I have talked, soon after the planes spread the herbicides, the harvesters come in to collect the coca leaves for processing before the chemicals ruin them. The plants, free from the herbicides on the leaves, recover soon. And the cocaine production is only hastened a bit by the need to process the leaves sooner than expected. The yucca, plantain, papachina, maize, rice and other crop, however, cannot be harvested and the peasants who live nearby coca plots simply go hungry. Or join the coca production.

I live in the town of Guapi, a small town on the Colombian Pacific coast that has seen the horrible impacts of all that I describe above. I have seen in the two years since I arrived a tremendous increase in the number of peasants that have arrived in town displaced from their plots totally uprepared for life in a town (let alone life in a big city like Cali, that has seen the arrival of thousands). I have also seen from the plane the increase in the size and number of clear cut areas of the jungle, some for coca others for the extraction of wood, both very damaging to the environment. And I have met many a young man whose only chance for a job is upriver working for the cocaine industry. And I have seen a large increase in the number of drug-related killings that have happened in broad daylight on the town streets. Mostly the dead have been young men involved in the coca business but recently a young boy was caught in the middle of a gun fight and lost his life to a bullet. And I live a prisoner in a town surrounded by the most beautiful jungle there is, unable to explore it on account of the danger in which I will subject myself should I leave the confines of the town borders.

Hopefully there will come a change in policy that will end the current war and allow peace to return to the area. And allow the environment to recover before the headwaters of the innumerable rivers that flow in this very dense and beautiful jungle.

I read with much interest of an upcoming report on the issue of legalization of drugs in Colombia by Research Fellow Rachel Godfrey Wood.Many of the reports on drug use, abuse and legalization address the issues of the impact of drugs on society but limit themselves to the impacts on the urban society, both in the US and in Colombia: use by kids, killings, drug cartels, addiction, incarceration, rehabilitation, the futility of the current war, etc.Where I have seen little coverage is on the impacts of the current war on the Colombian peasants and on the environment. Cultivation of coca and cocaine extraction require the use of chemicals that are highly regulated in the legal economy but are handled very irresponsibly by the illegal producers. Spillage, mismanagement, intentional dumping to avoid seizure of people or goods cause serious damage to the rivers and the environment. In additon, the continued persecution by law enforcement agents forces the traffickers to be on the move leving behind abandoned camps with leaking containers. And large spots in the jungle that have been cleared of vegetation for the planting of the coca bushes.The other grave issue is the displacement of peasants who are forced to leave their plots by the traffickers looking for land to cultivate the coca and also by the violence of the war among groups vying for control of areas to cultivate. In addition by the escalating price of food, agricultural supplies, fuel and consumer goods brought about by the availabiliy of money from the drug traffic and by the increase of consumption of goods without the necessary increase in the supply. To top it, the current policy of erradication considers the use of herbicides to destroy the coca plants. The herbicides, applied from the air over small coca plots end up destoying the plantain, yucca, and other food crops. It also contaminates the roof tops that are used as collectors of rain water used for drinking. And it contaminates the rivers and soil. But it does little to hurt the coca industry. By many accounts of peasants with whom I have talked, soon after the planes spread the herbicides, the harvesters come in to collect the coca leaves for processing before the chemicals ruin them. The plants, free from the herbicides on the leaves, recover soon. And the cocaine production is only hastened a bit by the need to process the leaves sooner than expected. The yucca, plantain, papachina, maize, rice and other crop, however, cannot be harvested and the peasants who live nearby coca plots simply go hungry. Or join the coca production.

I live in the town of Guapi, a small town on the Colombian Pacific coast that has seen the horrible impacts of all that I describe above. I have seen in the two years since I arrived a tremendous increase in the number of peasants that have arrived in town displaced from their plots totally uprepared for life in a town (let alone life in a big city like Cali, that has seen the arrival of thousands). I have also seen from the plane the increase in the size and number of clear cut areas of the jungle, some for coca others for the extraction of wood, both very damaging to the environment. And I have met many a young man whose only chance for a job is upriver working for the cocaine industry. And I have seen a large increase in the number of drug-related killings that have happened in broad daylight on the town streets. Mostly the dead have been young men involved in the coca business but recently a young boy was caught in the middle of a gun fight and lost his life to a bullet. And I live a prisoner in a town surrounded by the most beautiful jungle there is, unable to explore it on account of the danger in which I will subject myself should I leave the confines of the town borders.Hopefully there will come a change in policy that will end the current war and allow peace to return to the area. And allow the environment to recover before the headwaters of the innumerable rivers that flow in this very dense and beautiful jungle.Sincerely,Ricardo Gomez Fontana